Next City: Learning from Cities during COVID-19 to Tackle Climate Change
TL;DR: In this article, a literature review and three case studies that review policies and practices for the transformation of city ecosystems mostly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are presented, including the central business district, the transport ecosystem, and the tourism-hospitality ecosystem.
Abstract: Fundamental principles of modern cities and urban planning are challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the advantages of large city size, high density, mass transport, free use of public space, unrestricted individual mobility in cities. These principles shaped the development of cities and metropolitan areas for more than a century, but currently, there are signs that they have turned from advantage to liability. Cities Public authorities and private organisations responded to the COVID-19 crisis with a variety of policies and business practices. These countermeasures codify a valuable experience and can offer lessons about how cities can tackle another grand challenge, this of climate change. Do the measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis represent a temporal adjustment to the current health crisis? Or do they open new ways towards a new type of urban development more effective in times of environmental and health crises? We address these questions through literature review and three case studies that review policies and practices for the transformation of city ecosystems mostly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: (a) the central business district, (b) the transport ecosystem, and (c) the tourism–hospitality ecosystem. We assess whether the measures implemented in these ecosystems shape new policy and planning models for higher readiness of cities towards grand challenges, and how, based on this experience, cities should be organized to tackle the grand challenge of environmental sustainability and climate change.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors collected 60 initial policy responses related to urban mobility from cities around the world and analyzed them based on the challenge they aim to address, the exact principles of smart growth and sustainable mobility that they encapsulate, as well as the level of ICT penetration.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has put lifestyles in question, changed daily routines, and limited citizen freedoms that seemed inalienable before. A human activity that has been greatly affected since the beginning of the health crisis is mobility. Focusing on mobility, we aim to discuss the transformational impact that the pandemic brought to this specific urban domain, especially with regards to the promotion of sustainability, the smart growth agenda, and the acceleration towards the smart city paradigm. We collect 60 initial policy responses related to urban mobility from cities around the world and analyze them based on the challenge they aim to address, the exact principles of smart growth and sustainable mobility that they encapsulate, as well as the level of ICT penetration. Our findings suggest that emerging strategies, although mainly temporary, are transformational, in line with the principles of smart growth and sustainable development. Most policy responses adopted during the first months of the pandemic, however, fail to leverage advancements made in the field of smart cities, and to adopt off-the-shelf solutions such as monitoring, alerting, and operations management.
28 citations
TL;DR: The lessons and implications outlined in this paper can be used to enforce social distancing community measures in an effective and timely way, and to optimize the use of resources in smart and sustainable cities in critical situations.
Abstract: Nowadays, the concept of smart sustainable governance is wrapped around basic principles such as: (i) transparency, (ii) accountability, (iii) stakeholders’ involvement, and iv) citizens’ participation. It is through these principles that are influenced by information and communication technologies (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence, that the practices employed by citizens and their interaction with electronic government (e-government) are diversified. Previously, the misleading concepts of the smart city implied only the objective of the local level or public officials to utilize technology. However, the recent European experience and research studies have led to a more comprehensive notion that refers to the search for intelligent solutions which allow modern sustainable cities to enhance the quality of services provided to citizens and to improve the management of urban mobility. The smart city is based on the usage of connected sensors, data management, and analytics platforms to improve the quality and functioning of built-environment systems. The aim of this paper is to understand the effects of the pandemic on smart cities and to accentuate major exercises that can be learned for post-COVID sustainable urban management and patterns. The lessons and implications outlined in this paper can be used to enforce social distancing community measures in an effective and timely way, and to optimize the use of resources in smart and sustainable cities in critical situations. The paper offers a conceptual overview and serves as a stepping-stone to extensive research and the deployment of sustainable smart city platforms and intelligent transportation systems (a sub-area of smart city applications) after the COVID-19 pandemic using a case study from Russia. Overall, our results demonstrate that the COVID-19 crisis encompasses an excellent opportunity for urban planners and policy makers to take transformative actions towards creating cities that are more intelligent and sustainable.
20 citations
TL;DR: A survey of smart city solutions for crisis management, proposing definitions for emergencies-oriented systems and classifying them according to the employed technologies and provided services can be found in this paper .
Abstract: The rapid urbanization process in the last hundred of years has deeply changed the way we live and interact with each other. As most people now live in urban areas, cities are experiencing growing demands for more efficient and sustainable public services that may improve the perceived quality of life, specially with the anticipated impacts of climatic changes. In this already complex scenario with increasingly overcrowded urban areas, different types of emergency situations may happen anywhere and anytime, with unpredictable costs in human lives and properties damages. In order to cope with often unexpected and potentially dangerous emergencies, smart cities initiatives have been developed in different cities, addressing multiple aspects of emergencies detection, alerting, and mitigation. In this scenario, this article surveys recent smart city solutions for crisis management, proposing definitions for emergencies-oriented systems and classifying them according to the employed technologies and provided services. Additionally, recent developments in the domains of Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data are also highlighted when associated to the management of urban emergencies, potentially paving the way for new developments while classifying and organizing them according to different criteria. Finally, open research challenges will be identified, indicating promising trends and research directions for the coming years.
13 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , a review of the literature in the area of COVID-19 and the tourism industry's sustainability and resilience in future crises is presented, and a conceptual framework for tourism managers and destination planners to identify the pandemic as an opportunity and adopt sustainable solutions to deal with the post-pandemic challenges, thereby developing more sustainable and resilient tourism businesses and destinations.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the tourism industry like never before, resulting in massive losses of revenue and jobs around the world. Accordingly, the pandemic exacerbated the already existing sustainability challenges of the tourism industry. However, there is also a positive side of the pandemic which is often overlooked by international scholarship. Thus, the present study aims to review the extant literature in the area of COVID-19 and the tourism industry’s sustainability and resilience in future crises. Through a synthesis of secondary data, it was possible to bring attention to the negative as well as the positive effects of COVID-19 on the global tourism industry. This article contributed to a better understanding of the positive side of the pandemic in terms of rethinking, resetting, and redefining the industry in a more sustainable way. The study lays out a conceptual framework for tourism managers and destination planners to identify the pandemic as an opportunity and adopt sustainable solutions to deal with the post-pandemic challenges, thereby developing more sustainable and resilient tourism businesses and destinations.
11 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1961
TL;DR: The conditions for city diversity, the generators of diversity, and the need for mixed primary uses are discussed in this paper, with a focus on the use of small blocks for small blocks.
Abstract: 1 Introduction Part One: The Peculiar Nature of Cities 2 The uses of sidewalks: safety 3 The uses of sidewalks: contact 4 The uses of sidewalks: assimilating children 5 The uses of neighbourhood parks 6 The uses of city neighbourhoods. Part Two: The Conditions for City Diversity 7 The generators of diversity 8 The need for mixed primary uses 9 The need for small blocks 10 The need for aged buildings 11 The need for concentration 12 Some myths about diversity. Part Three: Forces of Decline and Regeneration 13 The self-destruction of diversity 14 The curse of border vacuums 15 Unslumming and slumming 16 Gradual money and cataclysmic money. Part Four: Different Tactics 17 Subsidizing dwellings 18 Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles 19 Visual order: its limitations and possibilities 20 Salvaging projects 21 Governing and planning districts 22 The kind of problem a city is Index.
11,879 citations
"Next City: Learning from Cities dur..." refers background in this paper
...Jacobs [41] also analysed the return to tenderness for urban street life....
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...The idea that ‘serendipity’ in cities fosters innovation has been a mainstay of urban theorists for many years [41], however, physical collaboration is one of the work aspects most hit during the pandemic....
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TL;DR: Why COVID-19 is an analogue to the ongoing climate crisis, and why there is a need to question the volume growth tourism model advocated by UNWTO, ICAO, CLIA, WTTC and other tourism organizations are discussed.
Abstract: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is challenging the world. With no vaccine and limited medical capacity to treat the disease, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) are the main strategy to contain ...
2,508 citations
"Next City: Learning from Cities dur..." refers background in this paper
...Therefore, significant changes need to be made in terms of operation, referring to both the employees’ and customers’ side, covering mostly health and safety aspects [67]....
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TL;DR: The COVID-19 pandemic of 2019-2020 has the potential to transform the tourism industry as well as the context in which it operates as mentioned in this paper, and this global crisis in which travel, tourism, hospitality and even...
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic of 2019–2020 has the potential to transform the tourism industry as well as the context in which it operates. This global crisis in which travel, tourism, hospitality and even...
573 citations
National University of Singapore1, Sewanee: The University of the South2, University of Maribor3, University of Edinburgh4, University of Hong Kong5, King's College London6, World Health Organization7, Seoul National University8, University of Barcelona9, University of London10, Robert Koch Institute11
TL;DR: This Health Policy paper uses an adapted framework to examine the approaches taken by nine high-income countries and regions that have started to ease COVID-19 restrictions: five in the Asia Pacific region (ie, Hong Kong [Special Administrative Region], Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea) and four in Europe (IE, Germany, Norway, Spain, and the UK).
544 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Technopoles of the World as discussed by the authors is a systematic survey of high-technology development in all its manifestations: science parks, science cities, national technopoles and technobelt programs.
Abstract: Technopoles - planned centres for the promotion for high- technology industry - have become a key feature of national economic development worldwide. Created out of a technological revolution, the formation of the global economy and the emergence of a new form of economic production and management, they constitute the mines and foundries of the information age, redefining the conditions and processes of local and regional development. This book is the first systematic survey of technopoles in all manifestations: science parks, science cities, national technopoles and technobelt programmes. Detailed case studies, ranging from the Silicon Valley to Siberia and from the M4 Corridor to Taiwan, relate how global technopoles have developed, what each is striving to achieve and how well it is succeeding. Technopoles of the World distills the lessons learnt from the successes and failures, embracing a host of disparate concepts and a few myths, and offering guidelines for national, regional and local planners and developers worldwide.
531 citations
"Next City: Learning from Cities dur..." refers background in this paper
...“Technological innovation depends on the process of learning by doing, rather than off-the-shelf operation manuals”, while the success of various technopoles was evaluated with regard to the “milieux of innovation” [40] (p....
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